Vanuatu

The Republic of Vanuatu is a Pacific island nation located in the South Pacific, with Port Vila serving as its capital. The islands are inhabited mostly by the Melanesians, and Portuguese explorer Fernandes de Queiros discovered the island in 1606. Queiros claimed the archipelago for Spain, but it was claimed by France and the United Kingdom during the 1880s. In 1906, the two nations decided to create a condominium to govern the "New Hebrides", but an independence movement rose during the 1970s. On 30 July 1980, Vanuatu was granted its independence. In 2016, Vanuatu had a population of 272,459 people.